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Semi OT: Theodore Roosevelt was a candidate for Rutgers President?

R1766U

R1766U

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Jan 17, 2014
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Just saw this on Twitter, never ever heard that before!


The very next day, Theodore Roosevelt, trying to take the Republican nomination from his old friend Taft, spoke on the same spot to thousands of people. Gov. Edward Stokes introduced the former president, and reminded the crowd that Roosevelt, in 1891, had been considered for the presidency of Rutgers. Austin Scott got the job, instead, which was fine with Stokes, who suggested that Providence had managed that result to save Roosevelt for bigger things. Rutgers students in the crowd cheered, and Roosevelt flashed his famous grin and said, “I recognize the symptoms of higher learning.”

http://news.rutgers.edu/news/obama%E2%80%99s-address-rutgers-commencement-recalls-other-presidential-stops/20160429#.VzMeEtJOkrl.twitter
 
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He was the student's "dark horse" candidate choice but Austin Scott (of Scott Hall fame) got the job.

In 1896, William McKinley won the presidency with his vice president Garrett A. Hobart, Rutgers Class of 1863. In 1899, Hobart died in his hometown of Paterson of angina pectoris. When the train came thru Rutgers, Scott rode with the President and all the Supreme Court Justices to his funeral.

McKinley's replacement turned out to be Theodore Roosevelt. In 1901, McKinley is assassinated and Roosevelt becomes the President.

In 1905, Roosevelt, a big football fan, demands that schools do something about all the fatalities occurring in football on an annual basis or he will use his authority to ban the sport. The result is the founding of the NCAA (known first as the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States).

So you see, even in death, Rutgers alumni make contributions to American sports!

The end.
 
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I knew most of that story Source.. but damn you really know how to tell it and flesh things out in short paragraphs. Well done!
 
Source,

Do you know of any documentation regarding TR being the "dark horse" candidate? I would guess that it may have appeared somewhere in the Targum or in correspondance perhaps?

Would love to see the document if it is available.

Thanks for everything you do and contribute!
 
The November 24, 1890 New Brunswick Daily Times reported, “Among many, the feeling is growing into conviction that Mr. Teddy Roosevelt is the man who will be called, but many expressed doubt as to his acceptance. The mere mention of his name has brought the whole body of students to favor Mr. Roosevelt and if the Board of Trustees shall express that favoritism in electing Mr. Roosevelt, Rutgers will secure a President who will command the sympathy and respect of every college student.” Instead, Austin Scott was chosen over Teddy Roosevelt and others and served as Rutgers president from 1891-1906. Roosevelt spent 1901-1909 as the 26th President of the United States.

One might wonder how America's history would have been affected if the Rutgers students had their way.
 
Awesome. Thanks Source....are Targum archives that far back available online at all to the general public?
 
The Ledger smeared TR and supported Scott. Politi dug up some crap about TR being too rough on his subordinates and re-printed a letter alleging physical and psychological abuse by the New Yorker. The rest is history.
 
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It might or might not have changed history. After all, Woodrow Wilson was president of Princeton before becoming governor and then president. So that path to being president has precedent.
 
R1766U said:
Just saw this on Twitter, never ever heard that before!


The very next day, Theodore Roosevelt, trying to take the Republican nomination from his old friend Taft, spoke on the same spot to thousands of people. Gov. Edward Stokes introduced the former president, and reminded the crowd that Roosevelt, in 1891, had been considered for the presidency of Rutgers. Austin Scott got the job, instead, which was fine with Stokes, who suggested that Providence had managed that result to save Roosevelt for bigger things. Rutgers students in the crowd cheered, and Roosevelt flashed his famous grin and said, “I recognize the symptoms of higher learning.”

http://news.rutgers.edu/news/obama%E2%80%99s-address-rutgers-commencement-recalls-other-presidential-stops/20160429#.VzMeEtJOkrl.twitter
Click to expand...
BULLY for him! CHARGE!!!:boom:
 
R1766U said:
Awesome. Thanks Source....are Targum archives that far back available online at all to the general public?
Click to expand...

The Targum is not online. You have to buy every edition since monthly publications started in January of 1869....

....OR you can view them on microfilm at the Rutgers Library.
 
R1766U said:
Just saw this on Twitter, never ever heard that before!


The very next day, Theodore Roosevelt, trying to take the Republican nomination from his old friend Taft, spoke on the same spot to thousands of people. Gov. Edward Stokes introduced the former president, and reminded the crowd that Roosevelt, in 1891, had been considered for the presidency of Rutgers. Austin Scott got the job, instead, which was fine with Stokes, who suggested that Providence had managed that result to save Roosevelt for bigger things. Rutgers students in the crowd cheered, and Roosevelt flashed his famous grin and said, “I recognize the symptoms of higher learning.”

http://news.rutgers.edu/news/obama%E2%80%99s-address-rutgers-commencement-recalls-other-presidential-stops/20160429#.VzMeEtJOkrl.twitter
Click to expand...

I have before me Edmund Morris's "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" and have just read the chapters about 1891. There is no mention of Rutgers. At that, time, Roosevelt was Civil Service Commissioner in Washington, D.C. and hence trying to get rid of the spoils system in federal employment.
 
quote-i-am-delighted-to-have-you-play-football-i-believe-in-rough-manly-sports-but-i-do-not-believe-in-theodore-roosevelt-350213.jpg


I think TR was shunned because he would have supported athletics and football. Can you imagine if Rutgers had begun recruiting players when all the "traditional powers" begun establishing their bonafides with ringers?
 
I'm probably wrong, but I thought that ringers became a serious problem only in the Knute Rockne era a few decades later. (Rockne himself is said to have opposed athletic scholarships, much less non-students participating). Interesting that TR who had a strong mind and who worked so hard to develop his body, thought character was more important. Maybe he thought that character led to intelligence and physical strength.
 
Rutgers Board of Trustees was much more focused on Austin Scott (who also became mayor of New Brunswick after his Rutgers Presidency was done). It was the students doing all the TR fawning. Athletics were totally student funded and run. Athletics would not have played any role picking a president. You're talking about a Rutgers College of about 225 students in the early 1890s.

Besides, I think it was in the original Queens College Charter that the Rutgers President had to have some sort of clergyman designation with the Church. They had to change the Charter to accommodate later Presidents who were not clergymen. I'm not sure, but I think that took place in the early 20th century.
 
Source said:
Rutgers Board of Trustees was much more focused on Austin Scott (who also became mayor of New Brunswick after his Rutgers Presidency was done). It was the students doing all the TR fawning. Athletics were totally student funded and run. Athletics would not have played any role picking a president. You're talking about a Rutgers College of about 225 students in the early 1890s.

Besides, I think it was in the original Queens College Charter that the Rutgers President had to have some sort of clergyman designation with the Church. They had to change the Charter to accommodate later Presidents who were not clergymen. I'm not sure, but I think that took place in the early 20th century.
Click to expand...

Source...just curious? Where do you obtain your information from? And how do you recall certain articles and their details so quickly? Do you have your own database of some sort or a number of hardcopies? Just curious as I always find your info interesting. thanks.
 
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